Dawnbreaker Episode I: Hard Contact/Part 2
CHAPTER 2 The Sith Lord stood above the body of the Gatekeeper, smiling. Without a word, he turned around and began to walk away. The Gatekeeper slowly sat up, completely unharmed as Darkon began celebrating what he thought was a victory. The Gatekeeper rose to his feet, extending his hands forward, he mumbled something incoherente, and curves his hands forward. Darkon turned just in time to see what looked like an endless number of black lightning bolts heading toward him. They entered his body, overriding all of his senses with numbness as the electricity flowed throughout his body. What felt like an eternity later, it ended, and Darkon fell motionless to the ground. Lord Darkon opened his eyes to see the Gatekeeper about to finish him. Pure willpower defeated the numbness, and he rolled to the side, and grabbed the Gatekeeper's wrist that was reaching for his heart. With a sharp twist, the Gatekeeper's wrist was broken. Before he had time to react, Darkon used Force shatterpoint, and a gentle tap to the Gatekeeper's armor was all it took to shatter it. His body now exposed, Darkon used a blast of dark Force power, and sent the Gatekeeper flying into the far wall, as the dark energy imploded in his chest. Lord Darkon approached his enemy once again at a carefully measured pace, a slight smile on his face. His hesitation was his downfall. The Gatekeeper leaped to his feet, throwing off what remained of his armor. His armor gone, he revealed nothing more than his mask, red and yellow soulless eyes, and a black outfit with glowing red barbed wire going up the legs and sides of the chest, coiling amongst itself like snakes. As Lord Darkon stood there, confused as to how his enemy is not dead, and in awe to be in the presence of such a terrifying creature, the barbed wire shot out from the Gatekeeper's chest and coiled itself around the Sith, dragging him closer and closer. The Gatekeeper let out a fiendish and other-dimensional roar that sent chills down Darkon's spine. His enemy now within his grasp, the Gatekeeper made several slashing motions with his hands, and massive foot-long gashes appear all over Darkon's body, spouting blood. Dropping his body, Lord Darkon falls to the ground, lifeless. The Gatekeeper walked to his fallen enemy, and ripped his heart out, just before releasing a dark red beam from his mouth, annihilating the body. Satisfied, the Gatekeeper vanished to Ty294's Corellian Corvette. --- As the red beam enveloped Lord Darkon, he was momentarily connected to the Gatekeeper's outer-dimensional plane, and, with his last remaining strength, the dark lord used the Force to trans-phase his soul to that plane, an instant before the body was annihilated. Darkon stood smugly in the alternate plane of existence. Stretching out with his senses, he located the Gatekeeper on the bridge of a Corellian Corvette. "YES!" Screamed Darkon, "Now you have made me more powerful than ever, Gatekeeper! I am no longer bound by the limitations of physical body...And I now have access to all the supreme power of this plane, the same as you. You haven't killed me...You have made me your equal in sheer power!" The Gatekeeper stood in shock, as the ghostly form of Lord Darkon, attired in a cloak the color of dried blood, with piercing eyes of silver-gray, and the foulest acidic poison vapors emanating from him, suddenly appeared on the Corvette's bridge. As the bridge crew began to disintegrate to the acid, Ty294 barely managed to escape via a side door on the bridge. Luckily his armor had protected him from most of the acid, but he was still wounded. Darkon phased in an instant right next to the Gatekeeper. Grabbing the Gatekeeper's arm, Darkon willed the acid to flow through his arms into his foe. Then, using the Force, he ignited the acid, and the Gatekeeper's outer-dimensional body was burned from the inside out. As his last scream died down, and Lord Darkon tore his charred, shapeless remains to pieces. "No longer are you the supreme being, Gatekeeper...Only I am that!" The Gatekeeper materialized behind Lord Darkon. "You fool. I do not die THAT easily! And once more, you will be cast down! Just like before." The Gatekeeper waved his hand, and Lord Darkon's mind is flooded with memories of his long lost childhood, how his family house was burned down, his family killed, and he himself horribly disfigured by the fire. It left him broken and weak at the age of 5. Returning to reality, Lord Darkon is returned to a physical form, only now, he is but a boy, in his 5 year old form. He quaked in fear at the sight of such a hideous monster, and cowered in a fetal position on the floor. The Gatekeeper approached the child. "Aw... How sweet. Now there's a face..." He said sadistically as he pulled out the head of Darkon's deceased mother out from... somewhere. "Only a mother could love!" Claws formed on the Gatekeeper's hand as he smiled, "Now, Darkon, you will die..." Intent on ripping the boy's head off, the Gatekeeper raised his claw hand, only to have the boy raise his hand in return. As he did so, the Gatekeeper found himself paralyzed. Darkon raised his head. He still looked like a small boy, but his voice was still of Lord Darkon, and it sent the Gatekeeper reeling backward from its unimaginable power. "How pathetic, feeble one!" Darkon bellowed, "You think me so easily manipulated...You forget that my power now matches your own! And more..." Suddenly, the boy's body exploded outward, and Lord Darkon was once again as he was before. With a snap of his fingers, they were no longer on the Corvette, but in the former house of the one who would eventually call himself the Gatekeeper, many millennia in the past. The Gatekeeper looks around at his family and his former self, a boy, sitting around a dinner table. It was a happy family. Lord Darkon waved his hand, and the Gatekeeper is frozen in time, only able to watch in helpless horror as Lord Darkon's basilisk gaze sweept across all of his former family in turn, including his former self, turning them into stone. They never existed. In an instant, the scene dissolved back to the Corvette's bridge, both of them standing in the exact same places, except that the Gatekeeper was now only a lifeless stone statue. A loud garbled and quite disturbing laugh fills the room just as Darkon is about to Shatterpoint the stone statue of the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper breaks out, dragging a long black chain with him. He lashed at Darkon with the chain, which does nothing except anger Darkon, or so it seems. Darkon grabbed the Gatekeeper in sheer fury, and tried to pick him up and toss him, but he can't move from the ground, as hordes of people have latched themselves onto his legs! "These are the Souls of the Forgotten, Lord Darkon. Hell will be your final resting place!" The Gatekeeper chokeslamed Darkon to the ground, which then began to crack. The floor of the Corvette shattered to reveal a massive fire burning beneath. As Darkon looked at it, his eyes, body, mind and soul catch on fire, as a massive Trident stabbed him through the back. The Gatekeeper knelt down, hand extended forward, as a red burnt hand gives him a small vial. Inside, was Darkon's soul. The Gatekeeper reached into a massive bag that materialized out of nowhere, and pulled out a large ball made of unknown material. He deposited Darkon's soul inside, and watched as the Trident ripped out of the body, allowing it to fall into the fire alongside the Forgotten. The floor of the Corvette closed back up, and the Gatekeeper rose to his feet, and awaited the imminent arrival of his attack fleet. Before leaving, the Gatekeeper placed a curse upon the grave, damning all who dare to disturb it to an eternity of darkness and tormented agony. "Vaskoras De Loch" 3/26/11- The Gatekeeper of The Force --- Lord Darkon's formless spirit heard a voice as it floated through another realm. "I am the beginning, and the end. Your adversary has consigned you to my realm, which he mistakenly calls 'Hell'. You have put up a valiant struggle against that creature, but you were no match for him... Until now. I hereby empower you, and choose you to destroy this false 'Gatekeeper', so you can become the true one, and bring the long-lost balance back to the universe." The bridge of the Corvette suddenly filled with a blinding purple light as the floor reopened, and Lord Darkon, now thinking himself the Archdemon, phased back into the prime reality. A white chain of pure primal energy lashed out at the Gatekeeper, catching and spinning him. The chain's torque creates a massive purple vortex of primal doom, which began to suck in the Gatekeeper. At the same time, a female demon phased in, carrying a gray-silver chalice, which draws into itself the Gatekeeper's soul. She then placed the chalice in Lord Darkon's hand. A strangely chilling veil began to emanate from the vortex, along with apparitions of enraged, distorted faces and clawed arms. Lord Darkon lifted the chalice, and spoke. "Do you hear that veil, false one? Do you see them? The veil of the misled, the betrayed, and the falsely cursed... all the souls you and your kind have led to their doom! They are calling for you, 'Gatekeeper'. They cry for vengeance... and so shall they have it! Hereby do I restore the balance... and inaugurate the New Golden Age!" Lord Darkon destroyed the chalice with a surge of primal energy from his burning eyes, and as he did so, the Gatekeeper was sucked into the vortex, the ghostly clawed hands already beginning to rend him to pieces, into an eternity of torment. The vortex closed, and that entire sector of space began to collapse in on itself. Lord Darkon returned to his new flagship, and immediately ordered his armada to leap into hyperspace, which they did, just seconds before The Gatekeeper's assault fleet arrived, and was promptly consigned into oblivion along with the Corvette and the surviving Imperial ships, as the sector became an unfathomable void, a transphasic singularity. "I told you at the very beginning. Do not place yourself in my way... the True way." A voice rang inside Darkon's head. "You think I'm an Angel?! I side with the Light?! You sicken me to no end, Darkon! Now, you, your kind, and ALL of humanity, will suffer the consequences, at the hands of the Gatekeeper of The Force!" Everything around Darkon's flagship went dark, and a massive explosion left Darkon standing alone on the bridge. Black robed Druids armed with various ancient weapons appeared and surrounded Darkon, completely overpowering him. They lead him back outside the flagship to the Gatekeeper, who promptly teleported himself and Darkon into an unearthly place of complete darkness. "Not even a demon can save you now. Look at what you have forced me to do. After this is over, you will be given a proper burial. It's the least I can do, for perhaps the greatest foe I've ever had." The Gatekeeper stepped back and prepares for one final battle, without any outside interference. Everything else was gone. "Oh, and FYI Darkon, my allegiance is with the Dark Side!" Lord Darkon suddenly dove forward, catching the Gatekeeper by surprise, and began to drain his life force, transferring it into himself. Just as Lord Darkon was about to annihilate the Gatekeeper once and for all - again - the Gatekeeper countered the spell, causing it to backfire on Lord Darkon, draining him of all of his powers, his abilities, and his strengths, leaving him helpless before the will of the Gatekeeper - again. Try as he might, he could not seem to use any of his abilities. It was almost as if the Gatekeeper has some sort of control over those who dwelled in the realm of existence... "Darkon, you can't win, not like this." The Gatekeeper said to his fallen foe. "It is useless to resist. Now, I have a proposition for you. You may have your Sith'ari and your True Sith Empire IF, and only IF, you take them to a different galaxy and leave this one alone. I reside here. This galaxy has, under my leadership, prospered. There can not be a single empire ruling all. I designed it that way. If you accept my offer, you may have the galaxy next to mine. Do whatever you wish with it, and my Shadow Empire will rule the rest. Or at least try to. It is obvious, Lord Darkon, that this continued fighting is not going to give a clear cut winner. I admit, I underestimated you. But you have also underestimated me. I am far more advanced than you realize. Just think about everything I have said. If you still wish to fight me, well, I can't say where that will lead. I'll be right here..." The Sith Lord coughed a couple times, before raising his head to look at the Gatekeeper, "You are extremely powerful, Gatekeeper. It is only prudent that I admit that. I have never yet encountered an adversary such as you, one who counters my power point for point at every turn. I may not be able to destroy you, but you also cannot destroy me. I choose to postpone our war until more convenient circumstances arise. I accept your offer. Yet, I am a Sith. More to the point, I am a True Sith, the Sith'ari. And the Sith deal only in absolutes. I shall brook no other supreme ruler save myself in this reality. You may have your flawed Shadow Empire in this galaxy, Gatekeeper... for now. But I promise you, the time will come when you shall kneel at my feet, and proclaim your loyalty to the Reborn True Sith Empire, which shall stretch across all the known universe. However long it takes...however high the cost, I will accomplish my goal! Remember...I have foreseen it. For now though, farewell. You have proven a worthy adversary, Gatekeeper, and you will be so again..." EPILOGUE Ty294 staggered to his feet, his broken body mortally wounded by blast damage from the battle. The Gatekeeper and Darkon had both vanished, leaving him for dead. Ty made his way to the nearest viewport, where he observed the carnage outside. At that moment he realized that his corvette has been torn in two. Although damaged, the Zero-G ability of his armor suit is still able to function. Sending a message over the comlink to a surviving Merc ally, he plunged himself into space. He was picked up by the Merc a few moments later, while what remained of the Imperial/Mercenary armada fled into hyperspace. The ship Ty was on jumped to lightspeed, toward a small planet on the other edge of the Galaxy, where a small, forgotten medical and cloning facility awaited a new patient. --- "Damn..." Said an armored figure, surveying the scene down on the planet below. "It would seem I missed all the action." Something on the ground caught his attention. Could this be what he was looking for? He crouched down to inspect the anomaly. "It is..." He rose to his feet, and put his mandalorian helmet back on. "It looks like this party's just getting started." TO BE CONTINUED...